Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Lowndes (5 August 1868 - 14 November 1947), who wrote as Marie Belloc Lowndes, was an English author who wrote a lot of books. She was the sister of the author Hilaire Belloc. She was active from 1898 until her death, and her writing was known for mixing exciting events with psychological ones. Four of her books were made into movies: The Chink in the Armour (1912; adapted in 1922), The Lodger (1913; adapted several times), Letty Lynton (1931; adapted in 1932), and The Story of Ivy (1927; adapted in 1947). The Lodger was also turned into a radio play in 1940 and an opera in 1960. Belloc was born in London's Marylebone on George Street and grew up in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France. She was the only child of French lawyer Louis Belloc and English feminist Bessie Parkes. Hilaire Belloc was her younger brother. In her last book, The Young Hilaire Belloc, which came out after she died in 1956, she wrote about him. The French painter Jean-Hilaire Belloc was Belloc's grandfather, and the philosopher and priest Joseph Priestley was her great-great-grandfather. It was 53 years after her father died that her mother passed away in 1925.
